12 December 2011 3:57 PM

Forget Europe - the real threat comes from inside Britain

David Cameron’s veto means nothing and it will not protect the City of London. There are two real threats - the Lisbon Treaty with majority voting and Conservative MEPs.

The Lisbon Treaty sets in stone Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) which means that our MEPs are easily out-voted by the new super eurozone. The immediate concern must be that the new eurozone will focus on the financial sector and impose a ‘user charge’ on our financial institutions. They can circumvent the Financial Transaction tax, that Britian has a veto on, and use a ‘user charge’ instead. This is a real and immediate threat that Cameron can do nothing about.

All 26 countries will press ahead anyway with closer fiscal and political union leaving the UK in the worst of all worlds. We are still members of this union but firmly on the outside of influencing events, we are more unpopular than ever and we are in a permanent voting minority. We will pay a heavy price as the very industry Cameron sought to protect will be the subject of retribution. The next time the bond markets twitch, a snarling Sarkozy will condemn the Anglo-Saxons and demand more legislation. We will be utterly powerless to stop this.

Already City businesses are cutting back as they have to cope with misguided parts of the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive and the Capital Requirements Directive. With the establishment earlier this year of the European Banking Authority and the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority, regulation of our financial service industries has passed to foreign lands. In this area of our national life, as in so many others, we are no longer in control of our own destiny.

The assault on the City of London by the EU is astonishing. The European Commission itself acknowledges that 50,000 City jobs could be destroyed by new regulations and taxes that it wants imposed under EU auspices. We are mad to tolerate the destruction of well-paid jobs in our own country by foreign bureaucrats. Even more unbelievable is that the assault on the City's industries has been rubber-stamped by Conservative MEPs. In the European Parliament they voted for the offending Directives with hardly a murmur of dissent. David Cameron pretends that he will defend the UK's interests, but everyone knows what a cast-iron guarantee from him is worth.

We cannot trust any politicians from the established parties to defend the City. We certainly cannot trust the Conservatives. We must do everything at this last hour to secure what remains of Britain’s financial services sector. The challenge from new EU regulations is long-term, radical and very dangerous. Too many senior people working in the City continue to donate to the Conservative Party without realising that its MEPs voted through legislation that will hurt their livelihoods and destroy many of their jobs.

Last year, Mr Cameron should have been watching the voting records of his MEPs. On the 11th November 2010, Conservative MEPs voted to support a proposal for a directive on alternative investment fund managers (A7-0171/2010). This directive saw the regulatory control of the UK financial sector pass to the newly created European Security and Markets Authority (ESMA). Previously, control of the UK financial sector was the responsibility of the UK government. The combination of increased regulation and the new powers of ESMA saw a number of hedge funds leave London for non-EU Switzerland. Supporting this directive has seen a loss of jobs and taxation from the City of London.

With one or two exceptions, Conservative MEPs and their Dr Kay Swinburne, Conservative MEP for Wales and spokesperson on economic and monetary affairs (who should know better), supported the proposal. She was recently reported as saying that there was an urgent need for or "constructive communications" over financial regulation. Her voting record shows otherwise.

Prior to this in September 2010, all but three Conservative MEPs voted in favour of a proposal for establishing the ESMA (A7-0169/2010).

Only UKIP MEPs voted against the Directive. The response from the City’s own lobby groups is no better. TheCityUK, who claims its “purpose is to promote the competitiveness of UK financial services – to make the UK the best place in the world to establish and grow a financial services business and, in turn, to maximise the sector's contribution to the UK” has miserably failed to protect its members’ interests.

I spoke to them this morning to ask what response they had Cameron’s veto and the remaining threats to their members’ interests. They replied that they had not issued anything. I have just logged on to find that later they had issued a release from Chris Cummings, CEO of TheCityUK, “We welcome the Government’s continued support for the UK financial services industry’s international competitiveness. It should be remembered that London is Europe’s leading international financial and business centre, and the success of UK-based financial services is integral to the success of Europe. The key to this is maintaining a vibrant single market that fosters jobs and growth across Europe.” It’s a bit late Mr Cummings, the horse bolted with the AIFM/ESMA directive 14 months ago and has won gold in the eurostakes while you were caught napping.

On Thursday, the people of Feltham and Heston will vote for a new MP. I have been there to campaign for the UKIP candidate, Andrew Charalambous, as they are the only serious mainstream party who will protect the City of London. I do hope that the voters will recognise Cameron’s deception and Miliband’s unswerving dedication to remaining in Europe and vote for a party that really puts Britain first. We need to leave the EU to protect Britain’s interests and there is only one party that will give us that choice.

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JANICE ATKINSON-SMALL

Janice is a director of a new, centre-right think tank, WomenOn ... which seeks to challenge the left dominated Guardianista feminist view of the world of women which does not represent ordinary women. Women On … researches the issues facing women today, and promotes ideas and policies which enable all women to reach their full potential – economically, socially, culturally and politically, but not at the expense of men.
In politics she was the director of Conservative Action for Electoral Reform (but did not support AV) and had provided communications for MPs, MEPs and campaign groups. She stood for the Conservative Party in the 2010 General Election in Batley and Spen but is now a member of UKIP.
Prior to becoming involved in politics, Janice ran her own successful marketing communications business. She is divorced with two teenage sons and is about to re-marry.
www.womenon.org